Cement on Holy Week? Kind of! Back in the late 90s, my wife and I, along with our three teenage kids mixed a lot of cement by hand. To clarify, mixing cement on this island isn’t the same thing as what it means in the states. We’re not talking about a sack or two of “Just-add-water” type of cement bags. Here, we’re talking about a truckload of river sand and another truckload of ¾” gravel. Done by hand, one mixes a fully loaded wheelbarrow of sand with two 47 lb. bags of cement (Called a mini) and then add two wheelbarrows of gravel. Once that’s mixed, you add water and mix the entire contents with shovels. Of course, the amounts are usually tripled. Everything gets packed again on to the wheelbarrow(s) and poured where needed.
After doing that for several years, you get used to it. Once you stop, it takes some time to get into it again. That’s what happened in August, 2002. My wife, youngest daughter, and myself built a cement base for our 1600 gal. water tank at the bottom of our road-200 ft downhill from the house. The first mixture was to lay the rebar and cinder blocks. A week later, we hauled our small cement mixer down the hill as well as the mixture and used up 10 cement minis. In all, we mixed 5 times the amount described above. We were adding the ingredients to the mixer by transferring from the wheelbarrow into buckets and pouring them in. We began with each of us three adding a bucket each. As the day wore on, and wore us out, it took all three of us to lift one bucket to pour it in!! By that time, we were exhausted! Of course, we now had to haul the mixer uphill as well as the wheelbarrow. Aching bodies and bruised hands provided the satisfaction of a job well-done. And so, it is in life. Life is hard, but God gives us rest. Incidentally, we’ll be mixing cement next week! Although there’ll be a larger mixer, just the thought of filling the wheelbarrow and then transferring the contents to the mixer is enough to get us tired! We’ll see how that goes!
God has all the ingredients to be your cement: God has multiplied Abraham’s seed as the sand of the seas (Genesis 22:17, 18). He’s built His Church upon the Rock. Jesus is the Rock!
“And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1Corinithains 10:4).
He’s Living Water (John 4:10)!
Allow Him to complete your life. He can build you. Your body is His temple (1Corinthians 6:19) ). Come to Him today. Give Him your sins. “While we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us” (Romans 5:8). He’s the missing ingredient. Let Him “Cement” the deal!
God Bless!
Happy Holy Week!
Sam